Early Australian history is usually told as a male-dominated story, and it is remarkable how often this is a story of male failure - Burke and Wills et al. The women who do appear are usually painted in lurid colours as prostitutes and slatterns, or as the odd lonely, isolated "lady", having a thoroughly miserable time of it.
Yet I've just read a collection of (mostly) success stories in which women undertake amazing feats and complete them with aplomb.
Just imagine the journey of Annie Caldwell, an Irishwoman who arrived in Adelaide as a free settler with her husband Matthew in 1841 with almost nothing. They both laboured to earn enough to take a lease on a small farm at Gumeracha, near Adelaide, but the land was poor and the rainfall scant. Matthew died in 1856, leaving Annie pregnant with their eighth child.
She decided to move to NSW in 1864, selling "everything except five horses, some cattle, Lassie the dog and a tilted wagon - similar to covered wagons in America".
They took eight weeks to cover the 900km trek to Albury and they took up land near Holbrook (one of my old stamping grounds, where to my knowledge there is no memorial to her - although there should be!), where they selected a block in her oldest son's name.
One of the children said: "How hard we all did work! Mother seemed able to turn her hand to any sort of man's work after her ten years as sole manageress." The farm did well and Annie died aged 69, surrounded by her family. (p. 15-17)
This book is A Wealth of Women: Australian Women's Lives from 1788 to the Present, by Alison Alexander, which takes a fascinating, anecdotal approach to the topic, drawing heavily on the "History Search" by the Office of the Status of Women of 2000, which collected oral histories and much of the work of family historians.
Article comments
1 - SFC SKI
Sounds like another great frontier tale, from an uncommon perspective, thanks for the tip.
So many books, so little time.
2 - Eric Berlin
Great job as always, Natalie.
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